Calvary Inc. has announced it will pull the plug on News 1410 KQV Pittsburgh on December 31.
KQV currently airs News programming from 5am to 7pm and a mix of syndicated talk and Old Time Radio programming in other dayparts. The station’s News format dates back to when it dropped Top 40 in 1975.
Owner Robert Dickey Jr. told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Candidly, I think it’s a sad day for broadcasting. It’s fair to say we’ve been trying to provide a community service. The bottom line is I just can’t sustain the business model. We’re an independent, labor-intensive format, and we were happy to take it on as long as we could financially do it.”
Calvary Inc. was formed by Robert Dickey Sr. and Richard Mellon Scaife to purchase KQV from Taft Broadcasting in 1982. Dickey Sr. passed his shares to Dickey Jr. and his sister Cheryl Scott upon his death in 2011, who then purchased Scaife’s shares in 2013. Scott, who served as President and Business Manager of the station died last month.
Eric Jon Magnuson 
Nathan Obral 
Per the Tribune-Review’s similar story (at http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/13078377-74/kqv-pittsburghs-oldest-all-news-station-to-go-off-air-jan-1)…
“Dickey said declining revenue from advertising and increasing labor costs made the station unsustainable. The station hopes to sell land in Ross Township where its transmitters sit and the license. Dickey hopes someone buys the license, revives the station and makes it another 100 years.”
Robert Dickey Sr. purchased the station from Taft Broadcasting solely to preserve the all-news format… Taft was considering a flip to country music and he intervened. True to form, his family kept the all-news format in place on KQV until the end.
Of note, they did not cover their own shutdown announcement yesterday and will not do so until December 31.